Character Of Telemachus In Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

The main character during the first four books of the epic, is, contrary to the title of the epic, Telemachus instead of Odysseus. In fact, Odysseus is entirely absent from what is known as the Telemachia. It is here that we see the first guise, Odysseus the Deserter. Like in the Telemachia, Odysseus has been absent from his family and his country over the course of several years, and chaos has ensued as a result. We know that the Akhaians are a very social people, so when Aigyptios declares, “Hear me, Ithakans! Hear what I say. No meeting has been held here since our king, Odysseus left port in the decked ships,” (20.26-8). it is to be inferred that the kingdom of Ithaka has been left in a state of disorder since Odysseus’s absence. It is also clear that Odysseus’s wife, son, and parents have been suffering.

“Pain-more pain than any living woman, my lord, my lion heart, gone, long ago” (74.774-5). When Telemachus is introduced, we see Athena confirm the picture that is painted while he daydreams about the demise of the suitors, that he is a character that is incapable of commanding even his own home without the help of his father. “Ah, bitterly you need Odysseus, then” (9.300). In the scene when Odysseus meets his mother in Hades, she says that she didn’t die of natural causes, but “only my loneliness for you, Odysseus, took my life away” (191.210-1). She also reveals the fate of his father, Laertes, “Your father is country bound and comes to town no more” (191.210-1). Because Odysseus has left all these people behind in pursuit of the Heroic Code, he earned his guise, Odysseus the